Category Archives: Technology
An Open Letter to Nokia – How to Win Back The Smartphone Market
Nokia is in a very difficult position now; they have become completely irrelevant in the US smartphone market, and are losing ground around the world. At one time, they had at least a 5-10 year technology lead on any competitor … Continue reading
My Dream Laptop
With the advent of netbooks, tablets, and smartphones, people have been changing a lot about laptops. There have been some changes that frankly are going in the wrong direction, such as glossy screens, loud fans, tiny keyboards (on netbooks), etc. … Continue reading
Microsoft Genuine Advantage(TM) Javascript Crack
I figured that I would post this in case I ever have trouble finding it in the future. Microsoft has a “feature” of its windows update process that verifies the product key that was used to install the product; in … Continue reading
HD DVD Standard Deliberately Downgrades Picture Quality for Older HDTVs
I noticed a link to this SCI FI Tech article; the author points out the under the access control rules just released for the new HD-DVD standard, component output (which is the only HD input featured on quite a number … Continue reading
Heroic System Administrator Fights Communist Oppression
Businessweek online posted this story about a company called DIT that sells products and services to the Chinese people in order to bypass the Chinese government’s firewalls, filtering, and monitoring. The company was founded by Bill Xia, a member of … Continue reading
Cablecards
Arstechnica has an interesting story on cable cards. I particularly liked this quote: In any case, get ready for the brave new world of total end-to-end encryption, which is just about here. You have to give the content providers credit … Continue reading
Home of the Underdogs
While on the topic of abandonwarez, I thought I would also link this site. The Home of the Underdogs is a repository for primarily DOS software that is no longer on the market and is obsolete, but is still under … Continue reading
Virtual Apple 2 abandonwarez
This site has a java/browser-based Apple II emulator and an _incredible_ collection of disk images that you can boot. A little Oregon Trail or Rocky’s Boots or LogoWriter, anyone? It’s interesting because though this site is almost certainly _technically_ in … Continue reading
Microsoft DRM to “lock out hobbyists”
Cory Doctorow posted this peice to boingboing talking about how Microsoft’s video DRM technology has a licensing scheme that is intended specifically to lock out hobbyists. I think this is a case of Microsoft “whoops, I wasn’t supposed to say … Continue reading